


NOT a Damsel in Distress

by Penny_Candy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Daring rescue, Female pronouns for Pidge, Gen, It's NOT a rescue, Pain, Pidge swearing, Suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 17:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8219189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penny_Candy/pseuds/Penny_Candy
Summary: “Three of you, huh? And you brought some mechanical friends as well. All this for little me?”And, just because she couldn’t resist poking the proverbial bear, Pidge grinned lopsidedly up at them and continued, “Well! How about that.  You managed to catch me after all."





	

**5 minutes.**

Pidge winced in pain as her knees hit the floor. _Mental Note: see about adding extra padding to the inside of the armor._ She watched her helmet roll across the floor to rest against the far wall as they bound her arms behind her back. She winced. _Why do they have to pull my arms upwards so much?_ There were kneecaps in front of her face. _And,why do they have to be so damn tall?_ Tilting her head all the way back, she saw three pissed-off Galra soldiers glaring down at her with about five drones behind them. 

“Three of you, huh? And you brought some mechanical friends as well. All this for little me?”  
And, just because she couldn’t resist poking the proverbial bear, Pidge grinned lopsidedly up at them and continued, “Well! How about that. You managed to catch me after all. I thought I’d lost you when I dodged around the water purification tanks down in engineering but wow, it only took you a little over four minutes to find me! You know what, I think that might be a record. The last ship we invaded, it took them 5 minutes and 37 seconds to catch me. You guys are definitely better. You ought to be proud. I’d say call them up and brag, but we kinda blew them all over a solar system so that won’t really work out.”

The green paladin’s sass earned her a gut-wrenching kick in the ribs. She grunted as bones shifted and the pain in her side steamrolled over every conscious thought. Fighting to keep the scream behind her teeth, she almost blacked out from holding her breath. _What did Lance say when he broke his ribs back in the Garrison? Oh yeah, small, regular breaths, stand up as straight as possible. Don’t cough._ Pidge managed to straighten her back and take a brief whisper of a breath. Slowly, her vision cleared enough for her to glare back up at her captors.

**4 minutes, 12 seconds**

“Aww, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Go ahead and threaten me if you want. I don’t mind, not really. I understand it’s your job and all. Your commander would be VERY upset if you just let me go out of the kindness of your hearts.” The words growled out in a harsh, breathless singsong. _Oh, yeah. Don’t laugh, either. That hurts more._ “Say, you know what? I know you guys don’t have much experience with Earth girls but I could give you a few pointers on your interrogation techniques.” Pidge tried to take a deep breath, changed her mind when it felt like a set of fork tines sticking her from the inside, and just panted softly for a few seconds. “Sorry, lost my train of thought. What were we talking about again?”

**3 minutes, 16 seconds**

One of them grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head back in a way that made it even harder to breathe. She swallowed against the pain and tried to find another grin. _Quiznack, Lance. I am very very sorry I poked you in the side and laughed when you broke your ribs._ Tight, shallow little gasps were all she could managed but they still weren’t able to shut her up. “Really, fellas. You are fellas, aren’t you? It’s hard to tell. But anyhow, Interrogation techniques: I would try for a sweeter approach. You know; chocolates, flowers, promises you don’t intend to keep…” Clearing her throat almost caused a coughing fit. She wheezed. It was getting hard to see through the tears building up in her eyes. “Honey catches more flies than vinegar. That was grandma’s saying. Really, I’m willing to let you try it out, right now. Why don’t we go sit down, have a nice drink, you can tell me all about your last bloodthirsty battle and I can pretend to be impressed!.”

**2 minutes, 36 seconds**

“Um, if you don’t mind... this is getting a bit uncomfortable.” _Understatement, much?_ “You wanna let go of my hair? I’d say ‘please’ but I don’t really feel that polite right now. Actually, I’m not really feeling polite at all. Quite a shame, because I’m a very polite person.” Her voice was getting hoarse from the strain on her neck. The soldier behind her with the death-grip on her locks gave her another kick that just missed her kidneys. “ You can ask any of the other paladins. Have you seen them lately? I know they’re around here somewhere.” She wheezed. _My throat is killing me. How much longer?_

**1 minute, 23 seconds**

One of the soldiers muttered something about getting her into the brig before someone tried a rescue. Pidge managed a full laugh. It hurt. But it was so worth it. She looked up sideways at the one with his nasty claws in her hair and gave him her best wicked grin; That show of teeth that made Keith shiver in fear and even made Shiro blanch. “Oh, you poor thing. You think I’m in need of a rescue? Like some ‘Damsel in DIstress’? I have news for you.”

**52 seconds**

“You see, I may be in a little bit of distress… which is, incidentally all your fault. I was perfectly willing to be civilized but you insisted on being the barbarians. Alas, you see, I’m not really in need of rescuing.” She caught a flash of white around the corner behind the two in front of her. _About time._ “It’s more the other way around. You probably should have called for help about four minutes ago.” _Stupid Galra. I’ve been keeping you distracted._ “I. Am. Not. Your. Hostage. You are mine. Or you would be, but there’s no room on my lion for taking hostages. Tough Luck.”

**3 seconds**

“I’m the BAIT you idiot bastards, and you fell for it!” Her words escalated into a scream of fury and the green paladin ducked her head just before a flash of plasma beams cut through the air. The sound of Galra heads and torsos exploding in blue and yellow heated energy made her heart sing and her ribs ache from the laugh that bubbled out. _There’s my boys._  
Of course that feeling didn’t last. Keith was there in an instant and there was an explosion of overwhelming pain as he shoved past her to impale the soldier who had been holding her hair. He had let go to grab his blaster but it was far too late. Fighting the sudden nausea that was actually worse than the swimming vision, Pidge screamed, “FUCK, Keith! That HURTS, you zealous bastard!” That was it, Pidge started shaking; in pain or rage she really couldn’t say. _I’m gonna program the castle systems to give you nothing but cold water for a WEEK, you prick. Enjoy your cold showers._  
“Pidge, language!”  
Shiro. As always, ever so proper, even as he knelt down in front of her to help her upright. She heaved, and cried, and eventually blinked away the tears and fought back the creeping blackness along the edges of her vision. She needed to be strong so she could ease his concern with a smile she hardly felt. 

So brave. _Fuck. There’s something I need to say before I pass out…_ “When you guys said you'd be here in five minutes, I didn't really think you'd take the WHOLE five minutes to get here.” Pidge glanced over at her helmet lying forgotten in the hallway, it’s live-comm light was still blinking. 

Shiro released her bonds and she sighed as the lack of pressure on her arms aided her breathing and allowed her to cradle her ribs. _Is the room supposed to be spinning like that?_

“Quiznack, Pidge! You are never playing the bait again.” Lance came forward to gently help her to her feet. It was even easier to breathe once she was upright. She put her head against his chest.

“Shut up. It was my turn. At least I didn’t end up with a concussion, like Keith…”

“Hey! They kicked me in the head that time!”

She smirked weakly and tried to blink away the tears she didn't want them to see. “Shiro… I think…” She leaned heavily against Lance. “I think…I wouldn’t object to a shorter wait time in the future.”

“Ok. You got it, Tiger.” His smile was glorious. “ If you’re ready, let's blow this joint and go get you patched up. Good job.”

**Author's Note:**

> Here you go! I hope you enjoyed this. My muse woke me up at 4am one morning with a prompt for this. It flowed out onto the page the next day in one glorious stream. Those of you who write know how incredible that is. The stories that do that are generally really good or really bad. My beta seems to think this one is good so I'm sharing it. I warn you, comments and kudos will only encourage me to write more.


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